The Olympians...yeah they're fun and interesting but they've been done to death. Over and over again. What's something that people don't usually know about, I asked my self. The answer came to me suddenly (after a quick game of "guess the number")- another group of goddesses that lurked behind the splendid gods up in the heavens, ones whose power rivaled that of the Moirae/Fates. These are...the Erinyes, or the Furies.

The Erinyes are also known as The Furies in Roman culture. The number of Erinyes have never been specified but there are generally three main ones that are recognized: Alecto ("unceasing"), Megaera ("grudging"), and Tisiphone ("avenging murder"). Collectively they had many other names:

** Semnai = "The Venerable Ones"

** Potniae = "The Aweful Ones"

** Maniae = "The Madnesses"

** Praxidikae = "The Just-Doers"

** Kampesigounoi = "bending the knees"

** Eumenides = "The Kindly Ones," possibly out of a hope to appeal to their good natures.

For their birth tradition, Cronus had castrated his father (symbolic for stripping him of his power) and thrown his bloody genitals into the ocean. As the blood leaked out the Erinyes sprung out. Other sources say they are the daughers of the goddess Nyx, the embodiment of the Night. But from the time they were born they made their home in Tartarus.

Tartarus was a portion of the lower parts of the underworld. It was a special place of punishment but this is not where murderers and thieves went after they died. There were relatively few people being tortured here. It was specially reservered for fallen gods or mortals who had crossed the gods in some ways. The Erinyes were in charge of dealing out the punishments. Early iconography shows them as spirits with snakes twining about their bodies. Blood would drip from their eyes and they had the wings of either a bat or a bird. Occassionally they have the bodies of dogs. It was said they took delight in whipping their charges.

When they weren't in the underworld they were harrassing mortals who had committed certain atrocities. In the early stages of this mythological tradition it was said that humans did not have the right to punish others for crimes. They firmly believed the Erinyes would take care of things and dole out the punishments they saw fit. The goddesses would molest wrong-doers without rest until they slowly went mad. They would eventually kill themselves, sending them straight to Tartarus where the Erinyes could torture them in person. The concept of this sprung from the crushing guilt we feel when we commit vile acts.

The myth of Tantalus is probably the most known that include the Erinyes. Tantalus was a mortal who conspired to steal the secrets of ambrosia and necter to share with the rest of mankind. Ambrosia and necter were the foods of the gods and to taste them would make someone immortal so these items were highly desirable. Zeus found out though and immediately cast him into Tartarus. There, the Erinyes rendered him immoble in water up to his neck yet unable to move his head to drink. Ripe fruits hung just above his head but whenever he tried to stretch for them they would be just beyond his reach. This would be his punishment for the rest of eternity, "tantalized" by these things that he could never reach.

Another myth is that of Orestes. He was the son of Agamemnon, the one from Troy, by his wife Clymtemnestra. Before Agamemnon departed for Troy he sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia in return for favorable winds on the sea. He had told her that she was to be married to Achilles so she, delighted and on cloud 9, came to him unsuspecting. Some traditions say that just before the kinfe fell Artemis swooped down and made her one of the goddesses priestesses. But safe to say, Clymtemnestra was not happy. At the urging of her lover/cousin-in-law Aegisthus and together they plotted Agamemnon's murder should he return from the Trojan War. He did, with the young Trojan princess Cassandra as a concubine, and Clymtemnestra was sent over the edge. So she killed them (Some tradtions say Cassandra escaped).

Enter Orestes, who was bound by honor to avenge the murder of his father by repaying the offender in kind. Unfortunately this turned out to be his mother. He refused at first but Apollo ordered him to carry out his duty. The Erinyes immediately swarmed him and drove him insane. He had been caught between two bad choices and either one would have been a no win situation.

Luckily, Athena intervened and transformed the Erinyes into Eumenides ("the Kindly Ones") and Orestes was released from their curses.

Ok...now my favorite part...time to dissect!

It's improtant to know that the writers of these myths were most likely male so it's easy to see why they would picture something so seemingly wicked to be female. But it also has the undertones of who was really in charge. There is a theory that simply states "Before the God, there was the Goddess." And somehow the male aspect overthrew the female and attempted to stamp it out.

The Erinyes were spirits of order, closely related to the goddess Nemsis, the concept of divine retribution. When the order of things were thrown out of whack they would swarm and make trouble until things were fixed. One thing that would not be tolerated in the ancient world was the slaying of kinsmen. But not just any kinsmen.

Yeah, it was bad to kill Father. Yeah, it was bad to kill Brother and Sister. Yeah, you shouldn't kill Grandpa and Grandma and Aunt and Uncle and Cousin. But the most vile, the most repugnant thing that you could do was murder your mother. Like with Orestes, this brought down the Erinyes' wrath (Notice, there is no mention of the Erinyes plaguing Agamemnon for sacrificing his daughter nor is there anything about Clytemnestra being similarly cursed).

But why was this so? It's because women were the keepers of the culture. While mothers raised the children it was up to them to pass on the stories and to teach them about the traditions that were important. The fathers were either hunting or in the fields so they couldn't do the same thing. Without this continuation of ideas then the culture would soon die out. They would just be random people living near each other without any sense of unity or history.

The next worse thing that would draw the Furies attention was to break an oath, especially among the immortals. It was said that if anyone made a promise by the waters of Styx (The river the runs in the underworld) and broke their word, that would earn them a one way ticket to Tartarus and into the Erinyes' hands. All the gods swore oaths by this river so they could not go back on any promise because even they were powerless against these goddesses.

This is an ethical reinforcement, since if everyone took oaths then lied about them everyone would do it (Like taking out a loan at the bank on the promise you would pay it back, except you don't and there's nothing they can do to stop you). This added a bit of encouragement to stick to your contracts at all possible costs.